The Power of Denial
Someone from the Red Cross describes our NHS as a humanitarian crisis. Oh dear. OK, bit of commentary in the media, politicians spin it. No big deal.
But then someone from the NHS denies it, thus invoking the Power of Denial to make it a much more serious story, less likely to be relegated to a footnote in Current Affairs by next week. And it’s not even an unqualified denial. Whoops!
My first reaction: how silly to rise to the bait. But was it deliberate? One shouldn’t attribute to Conspiracy what can be explained by Cockup, but in this case I’m not at all sure.
niq's soapbox 
How can you even “deny” something that’s undefined? It’s like saying to, e.g., Donald Trump “You’re a bit of a cock, aren’t you?”, and he says “No”. There’s – really not much to be discussed there.